The potentials of palm oil as a dielectric fluid

Petroleum and mineral based fluids have, for almost one century, been used for cooling and insulation purposes. Their popularity' stems out of their availability and cheapness. However, recent evidence has shown deficiencies with these fluids. They have low properties especially flash and fire points and most importantly low dielectric break down voltage. The most serious of these shortcomings is the inability to meet up with health and environmental laws. This is because they are not organic and hence not biodegradable; their spillage takes very long time to decompose. These developments have led to seeking alternatives in vegetable based fluids. The fluids tried and confirmed to be used as dielectric fluids include castor oil, coconut oil, soya bean oil, rapeseed oil etc. This work has measured the properties of palm oil against the IEEE C637 and ASTM D section for possible use as a dielectric fluid. The result shows that treated palm oil has break down voltage of 75 kV/mm, flash point >220), fire point (>220) and moisture content (0.08%). Hence this has shown the potential of palm oil as a dielectric fluid. However future work should focus on further investigation before field application. Malaysia as a country stands a lot of gains in this type of research, since it is a world is leader in palm oil production.